When filmmaker Rebecca Barry asked friends and contacts for names of inspiring teachers for her SBS Television series, she didn’t realise how difficult it would be to pick just four from the hundreds nominated across the state.

The series, Inspiring Teachers, was broadcast in four half-hour programs last month.

It featured three teachers from NSW public schools, including an opera-singing music specialist, a computer teacher giving refugees new life skills, and a science teacher who personifies the excitement of discovery.

The premise of the project was that most people’s lives have been positively influenced by an outstanding teacher.

“An inspiring teacher can change the course of someone’s life. It’s almost like movie plot points, the way they can change your way of thinking or the path you take,” Ms Barry said.

“What I learnt from these teachers is they are truly experts in their field. They’re passionate about their subjects and they really care about kids.” More than 20 teachers were researched during pre-production, with the final selection based on the practicalities of filming.

“All the teachers we met were inspiring, it just came down to logistics and curating the series,” Ms Barry said.

"We had limited resources so we needed to use teachers who were close to Sydney. We also needed people who were able to commit because it’s quite full-on having a documentary crew in your class two days a week for a full term."

Former professional opera singer Susan Reppion-Brooke didn’t find working in front of a camera a big stretch.

A “natural performer and music maker”, Mrs Reppion-Brooke said she turned to music education because “that’s where I’ve been most needed”.

Mrs Reppion-Brooke teaches at Dulwich High School of Visual Arts and Design, and believes music is everyone’s right.

“It’s not about having a degree in it, or being good or bad at it, music is an expression of who you are and should be accessible to everyone,” she said.

The greatest reward for Mrs Reppion- Brooke is helping students experience the “joyfulness” of music. “I love to see them realise that they can do it.”

The thrill of discovering musical ability is a contagious one, as the filmmakers learnt during production. Ms Barry said she became so absorbed in the lessons she sometimes forgot she was filming.

“I felt like I had gone back to school – in a good way,” she said. “I’ve never considered myself a musical person, but after spending time in Susan’s class, I’ve actually started playing the bass guitar.”

The common thread throughout Inspiring Teachers is each teacher’s total immersion in their subject area, and the strong connection they foster with students.

“As well as being experts, these teachers simply have to share their knowledge. It’s almost a compulsion for them to teach,” Ms Barry said.

Lucas Heights Community School science teacher Tina Valassis, who featured in episode four, said: “I’ve merged two loves in my life; the love of humans, particularly children because they’re just so eager to learn, and science.” Ms Valassis said teaching had a therapeutic effect, helping her overcome a period of depression several years ago.

“Kids make you laugh and keep you young. They say things and do things that lighten my heart,” she said.

Wearing a bright yellow and green afro wig, lab coat and trick spectacles, her alter ego “Miss Science” engages students from Kindergarten to Year 12 with her “mad hatter” style of experiments.

“Miss Science brings children into the world of science in a way I don’t think I could,” Ms Valassis said.

“I want them to really see that it’s not just a subject they’ve got to get through to sit the HSC; science actually is life. Maybe I should name it the ‘life lab’.”

While filming the series, Ms Barry noticed all the teachers had very different teaching styles, yet the similarities were in how effectively they connected with students.

“For Tina Valassis it’s about accessibility. She leaves the window open above her desk in the staffroom so kids can pass by and tell her things like ‘I found a fossil in our back garden’,” Ms Barry said.

“In the film she’s casually discussing the big bang theory with one student through the staffroom window.”

Inspiring Teachers also looked at the satisfaction teachers enjoy when students experience “light bulb moments”.

For Nirupa Badve’s students, those epiphanies can have life-changing effects. A computer and maths teacher at Holyroyd High School Intensive English Centre, Ms Badve said most of her students are on refugee visas and may never have been in a classroom before, much less touched a computer.

The centre has about 230 students enrolled from 43 different countries. In many cases the children have fled their war-torn homes “leaving with nothing in your hands”, as one student in the film described the experience.

Ms Badve helps them understand and navigate life in their new country, and to reconnect with their overseas families via internet and general computer skills.

She also looks for opportunities to further develop her students’ competencies – from researching an excursion into the city (which for some was the first time on a train) to building their vocational skills and helping older students write resumes.

“I decided they could help in The Cancer Council’s Biggest Morning Tea. They designed the invitations and presented them, which was very daunting to do in English. Then in their hospitality class they cooked the morning tea for about 70 teachers and staff.”

Ms Badve said the project gave the students valuable experience and increased their confidence.

“They’re here not just to learn, but to adjust to a new life. We need to give them that warmth, not just say ‘Here’s the curriculum – stick to it’, but to let the students know you’re there to support them in every way,” she said.

Filmmaker Ms Barry said she hoped the series celebrated teachers like Ms Badve and encouraged more exceptional people to consider teaching as a rewarding career.

She quotes American writer and academic Henry Adams as summing up the power and importance of good teachers: “A teacher affects eternity – he never knows where his influence will stop.”

The Inspiring Teachers series DVD is available for purchase online at www.marcom.com.au and a free study guide can be downloaded at www.enhancetv.com.au.